ESU Men’s Soccer Faces Tough Loss on Senior Night

The cold night didn’t stop a crowd from gathering for the ESU Men’s soccer game against Seton Hill Griffins last Friday night.

Before the game began, the team gathered together with family, friends and other supporters to honor and recognize their five seniors and two graduate students whom they will be farewelling at the end of this season.

With kickback at 7 p.m., the game began and both teams held each other even with neither team dominating for most of the first half.

As the play progressed, the boys seemed to find their flow, with the ball spending the majority of the end of the half in ESU’s attacking 25.

However, it was still a very midfield focused game with the Warriors being constantly forced to move the ball back and around to find a forward pass.

This saw only two shots on goal produced from the Warriors.

With 25 seconds remaining in the first half, ESU had an opportunity to open up the scoreboard with a header from Jordan Ellis that flew just high of the goal.

At half-time, the crowd was treated to a showing of two ‘pee-wee’ soccer games from local clubs.

The second half got going quickly with Seton Hill deflecting a long-distance shot from the 20-yard line past senior goalie’s, Will Boerema, head four minutes into the play.

Despite the setback, the Warriors stayed composed and continued to dominate the game.

Senior, Eddy Enowbie, created a scoring opportunity at 36:24 by outplaying the Griffins’ defense and making them cause a foul that was worthy of a long corner kick.

Senior, Jo Panuccio took the free kick, sending the ball across the top of the goal which found Graduate student, Nico Gericke’s head.

Unfortunately, Gericke’s header rang off the crossbar.

Five minutes later, the Griffins scored again.

This fired the Warriors up, picking up their attacking pace and producing more shots on goal.

Graduate student, Jordan Ellis saw a strong shot on goal at 32:02 which was unluckily stopped by the Seton Hill goalie.

Another slim miss on goal came at 29:18 with Junior, Marcus Torgersson, sending a ball just wide of the goal post.

Seton Hill secured their winning lead with a third goal at 14:35.

The Griffins earned a free kick from the centre of the field and sent the ball top right corner.

Goalie, Will Boerema dived and nearly had it but just couldn’t get a firm enough hand on it, tipping it into the goal. However, with 14 minutes remaining, the boys did not let this three goal lead hinder them.

The boys fought back with a dominant attack. The Warriors finally saw result from their hard work with Junior, Mateo Laredo-Fernandez, inserting a low shot into the right corner of the goal.

ESU continued to fight to the finish, looking to minimize the goal gap as much as possible, with high suspense in the final few seconds with the Warriors holding the ball in front of Seton Hill’s goal cage and sending multiple balls across goal. However, the Griffins held ESU off, finishing the game with a 3-1 loss for the Warriors. It was a disappointing end for a senior night yet the boys still hold their heads high knowing that they dominated the game and outshot the opposition 18-9.

The Warriors now have a9-5 record, 6-4 in the PSAC.

The men’s team will be facing their last on-season opponent — Mercyhurst — at 12 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27 at Erie, PA.

The first round of the PSAC tournament will be on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Make sure to wish these men the best of luck as they head towards the end of their season!